O
ne of the busiest men over the
race weekends is the man with
the longest job-title in the pit
lane – the FIA’s Race Director,
Safety Delegate, Permanent Starter and
Head of the F1 Technical Department,
Charlie Whiting.
Charlie, who used to be Chief Mechanic
at Brabham when Bernie Ecclestone ran
the team, has worked for the FIA since
1988. Simply put, he is responsible for
the flawless execution of a race weekend,
which can mean anything from making the
calls on last minute track changes, handling
the drivers pre-race to heading up the
team of people who follow the events from
Race Control.
So what is Race Control? Visually, it is a
room full of TV screens showing the FOM
world feed as well as CCTV. The Safety
Car and Medical Car are dispatched from
Race Control, and marshals around the
circuit receive instructions from RC about
appropriate flag signals.
In the next room the stewards are ready
to evaluate all situations, looking to the
rule book to apply appropriate penalties.
This year the FIA decided to turn the page
and use former drivers to complete the
stewards’ panel. Prost, Warwick, Mansell,
Wurz, Hill, Sullivan and Herbert are among
the former racing drivers who have taken
seats next to the regular FIA stewards and
there is little doubt that this has allowed
the FIA to better evaluate significant
incidents.
From the time a message appears on
your T V screen until a decision is made
about it, Race Control and the stewards’
room is typified by non-stop action. Beside
Charlie, there is also an observer, the Race
Control operator, and the medical delegate,
who liaises with the chief medical officer;
he always comes from the local country
in question. In total about 15-20 people
work in race control. The messages that are
coming to our TV screens are posted by
FOM who take the initial messages written
by the Race Control operator.
Communication between Race Control
and all the on-track personnel is vital. The
‘middle-man’ is the Clerk of the Course. He
is responsible for communication with
all the marshalling posts and organises
appropriate responses to an incident
in close cooperation with and approval
from the FIA race director. Bear in mind
that many races take place in non-English
speaking countries, and the importance of
the Clerk’s role comes into focus.
Beside the official filming by FOM TV,
the circuit is also covered in detail, as
mentioned earlier, by a CCTV system.
Race control also monitors a GPS system
(which shows the exact positions of the
cars on the circuit), the marshalling system
(with the new light panels that are also
duplicating messages to the drivers, along
with the classic flags from the marshals),
the radio transmission systems and also
over 20 different TV pictures from around
the track. This is the Race Control ‘toolbox’.
Who looks into incidents and who judges
if something is important enough to be
looked at in the first place?
Both the Race Director and the stewards
have the right to look at any incident. The
stewards’ position has been boosted this
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